• Deep Dive: Building Trading Markets with Don Wilson

    This excellent Odd Lots live podcast from a year ago is fantastic. While specifically about building a GPU marketplace, Don goes deep into the functions of a marketplace.

  • Vision, Anti-Vision, Values

    A great tool from Chasing Excellence. Read through once per week, update as needed. “If your habits do not support yur goals, one of them has to change.” Vision My family and friends know how much I care for each of them as an individual. I ensure they know I am present when we interact,…

  • Neobanks Dashboard: Great Tool from Francesco Andreoli

    I have long said a well-curated Twitter feed is a valuable resource. The below Neobank Dashboard from Francesco Andreoli (@francescoswiss) is a great example. Direct URL for Neobanks Dashboard: https://www.neobankbeat.com/

  • Conferences: Stop Sponsoring. Start Curating

    Part 6 of 6: Applying The Ultimate Sales Machine to a Career in Institutional Finance and Digital Assets A quick note on terminology before we start. Holmes calls this chapter “Strategic Partnerships, Trade Shows, and PR.” In financial services and fintech, nobody calls them trade shows; they’re conferences. The way most firms approach them is…

  • Why Selling to Financial Institutions Is a Different Game Entirely

    Where I take a very different path than Chet Holmes. Part 5 of 6: Applying The Ultimate Sales Machine to a Career in Institutional Finance and Digital Assets A quick framing note before we get into this one. Everything in this post applies to the initial sales pitch(es). These are the first one or two…

  • Developing Champions: Why Most Sales Training is a Waste of Time

    Part 4 of 6: Applying The Ultimate Sales Machine to a Career in Institutional Finance and Digital Assets I’ve built and managed Sales and Business Development teams in both small FinTech companies and in hypergrowth Digital Assets companies. From low-touch, automated sales processes to sales cycles that ran 18 months and the average deal touched…

  • Tokenization Theater & Blackrock as Kingmaker

    Everyone’s writing about tokenization wrong. The standard pitch goes: take a stock, a bond, a piece of real estate, wrap it in a blockchain token, and now anyone can buy a sliver of it 24/7. Democratization. Liquidity. Access. It’s a good story. It’s also mostly a distraction from what’s actually happening. The wrapper problem Most…

  • Education-Based Selling: Stop Pitching. Start Educating

    Part 3 of 6: Applying The Ultimate Sales Machine to a Career in Institutional Finance and Digital Assets Chet Holmes makes a counterintuitive argument in this chapter: the best way to sell is to stop selling. Instead, become the most credible, most useful source of education in your market and let that reputation do the…

  • The Dream 100

    Stop Chasing Everyone. Start Owning Your List. Part 2 of 6: Applying The Ultimate Sales Machine to a Career in Institutional Finance and Digital Assets The Dream 100 is the concept from Chet Holmes that I use in my FinTech (B2B) Business Development & Sales Leadership roles. As usual the concept is simple: instead of…

  • Time Management

    Analysis & Comments on Chet Holmes’ #1 Priority for Sales Leaders Time Management: The Discipline That Separates Good Sales Leaders from Great Ones Part 1 of 6: Applying The Ultimate Sales Machine to a Career in Institutional FinTech & Digital Assets Chet Holmes opens The Ultimate Sales Machine with Time Management, and I used to…